16 



suitable place where the sow and pigs will not suffer from the effects of 

 the usuall}' severe cold at that time, we do not believe in having our 

 sows drop their^litters in mid-winter. 



There is much less danger of loss, and we tliink it lar better to have 

 them dropped in April, and if full fed all the time uiitil the first of 

 December, they will dress from 300 to 400 pounds. After farrowing, 

 the sow for a few days should be disturbed as little as possible. Her 

 food for the first few days should be warm and slopp}', and small in 

 quantit3^ If she is doing well and is quiet and takes good care of her 

 little grunters, " let well enough alone." After a week or ten da3's, 

 feed more liberall3^ Nothing we ever found is equal to skim milk and 

 oat meal to make a sow give a large quantity of milk and the pigs to 

 flourish. Next to this would be corn meal thoroughly cooked and 

 made into a gruel, with sufficient bran in it to keep the bowels open 

 and to give a more glutinous diet. Before the sow farrows, if a rail 

 is placed around the side of the pen one foot from the side and 8 or 

 10 inches high, there is less liabilit}- of the mother lying on her 

 young before the,y have acquired sense oi- strength enough to avoid the 

 danger. Pigs should not be put to breeding too early, — eight or nine 

 months is early enough. If a sow in breeding shows a quiet disposi- 

 tion and has a reasonable number of pigs, and proves to be a good 

 mother and milker, she should be kept ; for a sow seldom throws her 

 best and most vigorous progeu}' until they have arrived at the age of 

 two or three years. 



IN-AND-IN BREEDING 



is especially to be avoided, if the breeder wishes to maintain size, 

 vigor, fecundity, and constitution. However successful the practice 

 of in-and-in breeding ma}' have been in improving and establishing 

 certain families and breeds of domestic animals, it is a practice to be 

 carefull}' avoided by our farmers in the breeding of swine. We have 

 known what was originally a profitable breed of hogs, by a continued 

 course of this practice, dwarfed and deformed and so completely " run 

 out"' as to be in a few generations comparatively worthless. 



MANAGEMENT OF PIGS. 



While it is highly desii'able to start with the riglit kind of hogs, let 

 the breed be what it may, the fact that the feed makes the hog, to a 



